SAT Pastpaper with Solutions

Microbiologist Radamés Cordero and team investigated surface temperatures of a variety of fungi, including Amanita muscaria and a species from the genus Cantharellus, in a study___________a previous observation: Cordero had taken thermal images of various wild mushrooms while hiking and found that the mushrooms all appeared to be colder than the surrounding environment, raising questions about thermoregulation in fungi.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Research on Chaenocephalus aceratus and other icefishes of the Teleostei class has shown that their hearts are pale due to low levels of myoglobin expression, which was once thought to be related to their polar habitats. Recently, researchers have found that some tropical teleost species (such as Sphaeramia nematoptera) also have pale hearts, raising the possibility that myoglobin deficiency in teleosts could be ________habitat.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

The_________Wendy Wan-Long Shang's book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu has been very positive. Many reviewers have praised the book, and it won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?

Editor Jared Shurin's 2023 anthology The Big Book of Cyberpunk contains 108 stories, an enormous number when compared to the 1986 cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades, which has only twelve. Encompassing both early (e. g.,Fritz Leiber's 1950 story "Coming Attraction") and more recent (e. g., Erica Satifka's 2021 story "Act of Providence") contributions, the broad chronological scope of Shurin's volume may make it seem more comprehensive than Mirrorshades, but Mirrorshades's focus is more carefully considered, rendering it the more authoritative anthology of this science fiction subgenre.

 

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

Wenheng Zhang and colleagues have explored how convergent evolution—a phenomenon that occurs when the same trait evolves independently in two reproductively separate lineages—can result from a genetic mechanism shared by both lineages. Meanwhile, Patricia J. Wittkopp and colleagues have investigated how convergence occurs through different genetic mechanisms, but the relative prevalence of convergence through shared and different genetic processes is still poorly understood. This motivated biologists Delbert A. Green Il and Cassandra G. Extavour to evaluate both types of convergence in a single study for their 2012 paper.

 

Which choice best states the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

Text 1

As part of a study of ungulates (hoofed mammals) native to the Yellowstone River basin, fresh dung samples from identified individuals were collected in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Bison Range of Montana. Based on steroidal analysis, on average the bison and elk samples had similar levels of beta-sitosterol and stigmastanol, which distinguished these species' profiles from that of moose.

Text 2

Although fecal-steroidal profile alone is not sufficient to distinguish between samples from bison and those from elk,the relative levels of zoostanols (steroids with animal origins), such as coprostanol and 24-ethyl-coprostanol, in sediments at Buffalo Ford Lake in Yellowstone National Park show that bison, elk, or both were the predominant ungulates in the lake's watershed for all strata of sediment examined, going as far back as 2,300 years.

Which conclusion about steroid profiles is supported by information in both Text 1 and Text 2?

In 2013 Bridie J. M. Allan and colleagues published a study concluding that ocean acidification has a strong effect on the behavior of Pomacentrus amboinensis, a species of fish. However, Allan and colleagues' study relied on a mean sample size of only about 18 fish. In a 2022 review of various scientists' conclusions about the impacts of ocean acidification on fish behavior, Josefin Sundin and colleagues caution that relying on such a relatively small sample size can increase the potential for biased analysis. Such analysis, in turn, can contribute to reports of exaggerated effects.

 

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

Did you know that the Warwick is just one of around three million known shipwrecks spread across the world's oceans? Leila Hamdan and team wanted to find out how wooden shipwrecks affect the distribution of microbes on the seafloor. The researchers studied two wooden shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico. They placed pieces of pine and oak between 0 and 200 meters away from each shipwreck to collect samples of microbes. They found that pine and oak pieces placed about 125 meters from the shipwrecks had the most species of microbes on them.

According to the text, at what approximate distance from the studied shipwrecks did the researchers observe the most species of microbes on the pine and oak pieces?

A student is researching volcanoes in Ecuador. The student claims that Ecuador is home to several different types of volcanoes.

 

Which choice best describes information from the table that supports the student's claim?

Calculations may be inexact due to rounding.

A student in an economics course is examining the decline since 1950 in average hours worked per person per year in various nations due to both increased productivity and the adoption of policies that limit working hours. The first task in this investigation is to determine how the decline in Switzerland compares to that in other countries. The student finds that_________.

 

Which choice most effectively uses data from the table to complete the statement?

A metro system is made up of rail lines that mainly serve a metropolitan area. The table shows the number of metro systems and stations for four countries, as well as approximate annual ridership, in millions of rides.

 

According to the table, which country has the highest approximate annual ridership?

Baleen whales eat up to 30 percent of their total body mass in krill (tiny shrimplike creatures) per day. So in one day, a humpback whale weighing 30,000 kg could eat 9,000 kg, while a southern right whale weighing 80,000 kg could ingest a whopping 24,000 kg. Over the last century, baleen whale populations have declined, and contrary to some scientists' expectations, so have krill populations. Matthew S. Savoca and colleagues resolve this apparent discrepancy by pointing out that baleen whales cycle iron in the ocean, helping support phytoplankton populations, which, in turn, sustain krill populations.

Based on the text, what is one likely effect of the change in baleen whale populations over the last century?

The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by Edith Wharton set in New York City in the 1870s. In the novel, Newland Archer attends an opera. Newland compares his intellect favorably to that of other men of New York City society who are in the audience:__________.

Which quotation from The Age of Innocence best illustrates the claim?

Paleontologist Amane Tajika and colleagues analyzed the shells of two marine mollusks called nautilids that were harvested from New Caledonia. The researchers found that samples from shell sections that formed before hatching, including sample F04, formed in 20-22℃ water, whereas samples from sections that formed after hatching, including M27, formed in 13-15℃ water. These findings are consistent with the temperatures Fijian nautilids encounter during their corresponding stages of development. Because water temperature varies with depth, a biology student hypothesized that the New Caledonian nautilids lay their eggs at approximately the same depth as Fijian nautilids do.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the student's hypothesis?

The Mammillaria cactus M. guerreronis occurs naturally only in the state of Guerrero in Mexico, and the smallness of its range makes it especially vulnerable to extinction. The traditional single-species approach to conservation emphasizes the need to focus on individual species most at risk, like M. guerreronis, but recently, conservationists have argued that an ecosystem-based approach that incorporates the many interactions between the climate, terrain, and various species of a given geographical area may lead to better outcomes for all the species in a given location. An ecosystem-based approach to the conservation of M. guerreronis could thus________.

Which choice most logically completes the text?

The relationship between grassland arthropod populations and agricultural fertilizers containing macronutrients—such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—was the focus of a 2013 study in the_________by the researcher Laura A. Burkle, the study examined a variety of arthropod specimens, which had been collected by hand.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

In 1927, the Swedish Academy presented Henri Bergson of France with an_________that few authors would turn down: the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

When first looking at San Carlos Apache artist Evalena Henry's woven baskets, viewers are likely to notice the baskets'detailed animal imagery. Upon closer inspection, Henry's careful construction_________apparent.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

When documenting butterfly diversity at Rupa Lake in Nepal, researcher Alyssa B. Stewart and her colleagues spotted a very rare butterfly of the Hesperiidae family and, after careful examination, knew exactly what species it belonged__________Ochus subvittatus.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

The Hereford map is a mappa mundi from the fourteenth century. Currently held at Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England, it is one of over 1,000 such world maps from the European Middle Ages still remaining, with the even older Vercelli map from the thirteenth century (now held at the Archivio Capitolare in Vercelli, Italy)_________another one.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Many places that gained their independence from Spain in the nineteenth century still bear the legacy of the Spanish Empire in their language, including Spanish-speaking Cuba, which left the empire in 1898.__________which ceased to be part of the Spanish Empire in 1648; Spanish is rarely spoken in the Netherlands in the twenty-first century.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Until 1992, most Olympic Games included demonstration sports, which did not award medals.__________a demonstration of glima, a traditional Nordic form of wrestling, was featured at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

Alabama is one of several US states to enact statutes supporting the incorporation of worker cooperatives, businesses with democratic governance. Many scholars testify to the economic sustainability of the co-op model while acknowledging its challenges.________those who declare the model inherently unviable can discount documented successes, while those who champion it may understate its challenges.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

The World Cup of men's soccer, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet, brought 32 national teams from six continents to the host country, Qatar, in 2022.__________only 16 teams, most from Europe and the Americas, competed in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical transition?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

· NASA mission Expedition 14 took place from September 18, 2006, to April 21, 2007.

· Astronauts Michael López-Alegría and Sunita Williams were crew members of Expedition 14.

· January 31, 2007: López-Alegría and Williams performed an extravehicular activity (EVA) to replace instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope.

· An EVA (also known as a spacewalk) is an activity done by astronauts outside the spacecraft.

· The duration of their EVA was 7 hours and 55 minutes.

· Theirs is counted among the longest completed spacewalks to date.

The student wants to emphasize the duration of López-Alegría and Williams's EVA. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:

· Cheryll is the nickname of a Triceratops fossil specimen housed at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.

· The Palm Beach Museum of Natural History is located in Wellington, Florida.

· Cheryll lived in the Late Cretaceous period.

· Dio is the nickname of a Triceratops fossil specimen housed at the Royal Ontario Museum.

· The Royal Ontario Museum is located in Ontario, Canada.

· Dio lived in the Late Cretaceous period.

The student wants to contrast the locations of the two specimens. Which choice most effectively uses relevant information from the notes to accomplish this goal?